East Bengal 2-2 Mumbai FC: A late equaliser denies Colaco's side of three points

AIFF Media

By Anselm Noronha with Atanu Mitra at the stadium

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26-Mar-2014 16:54:00

Mumbai FC picked a point against the Kolkata outfit in a game where Yakubu scored a wonder goal...

East Bengal were held to a 2-2 draw by Mumbai FC in a round 16 clash of the I-League played at the Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata, on Wednesday.

Yusif Yakubu opened the scoring for the visitors in the 61st minute before Ryuji Sueoka came off the bench to score twice (66', 68') to put the Red and Gold in the lead, although Ashutosh Mehta stole a point for Mumbai FC with a 87th minute strike.

For the hosts, Seminlen Doungel was handed a start ahead of Ryuji Sueoka by coach Armando Colaco with South Sudanese forward James Moga ruled out due to an injury.

Nicholas Rodrigues, Jayesh Rane and Sehnaj Singh were the three changes for the Mumbai side in place of Kamaljeet Kumar, Ahmad Hatifie and Climax Lawrence.

The 10th minute witnessed the first chance created and put down by East Bengal's Edeh Chidi whose eventual weak attempt was gathered easily by rival goalkeeper Kunal Sawant.

Ten minutes later, Chidi lobbed a cross for Doungel, who however failed to place it well as Sawant tipped it over for a corner.

Neither side was able to create clear cut chances inside the half hour mark until Mumbai FC's Sehnaj Singh hit the side netting in the 34th minute, while Cavin Lobo and Alfred Jaryan saw their attempts miss the target by narrow margins on the other side.

Jamil's side were unlucky not to take the lead four minutes in the second half when Jaryan latched on the rebound of Yusif Yakubu's shot that was parried away by Abhijit Mondal, but the Liberian's effort hit the East Bengal goalkeeper who was already down after committing to the earlier save.

A minute after the hour mark, however, Yakubu did put his side in the lead after he pulled the trigger from at least 50 yards after seeing Abhijit Mondal come off his line.It took just five minutes for East Bengal to score the equaliser as Ryuji Sueoka, who replaced Reisangmi Vashum in the 50th minute, unleashed a powerful back-volley from inside the six-yard box after Joaquim Abranches floated the ball into the area.

Sueoka completed his brace two minutes later as he connected to a low cross by Abhishek Das to pull off a shot that gave Kunal Sawant little time to react. The Japanese medio had an opportunity to score another goal in the 82nd minute, but his shot went straight to the Mumbai FC custodian.

Mumbai FC then drew level in the 87th minute after none of the East Bengal defenders were able to stop Ashutosh Mehta who found the back of the net to salvage a point for his side.

Colaco's side have to be content with a point which keeps them in the seventh spot with 28 points from 18 matches while Mumbai FC go level on points (21) with Rangdajied United FC and United Sports Club.

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